Each year on Memorial Day, the Woodinville Cemetery opens its gates to visitors. The Woodinville Cemetery is not only where our city’s pioneers lay at rest, but the newly refurbished grounds are a focal point on the city’s main street.

On May 30th, from 12:00 noon to 4:00 pm, members of the cemetery board will be present to answer questions and provide a printed self-guided walking tour. Photos of many of the pioneers will be displayed on their graves.

"Our self-guided walking tour is a wonderful local history lesson for both adults and children," says Linda McCune, president of the Woodinville Cemetery Association that manages the cemetery land. "Reading about a pioneer or seeing a photo brings history to life."

141 years ago, the first white settlers ventured northeast from the fledging town of Seattle to claim homestead land in Woodinville. Friendly Native-Americans inhabited this area then and the Sammamish Slough was nine feet deeper. This good-sized river provided a short steamboat ride from Lake Washington to Woodinville.

The Woodinville Cemetery now lies in the heart of the town that those settlers created. It was in early 1870 that Ira and Susan Woodin left their livery-stable business in Seattle to claim their 160-acre homestead along the Sammamish Slough. Thus, Woodinville was founded.

The first recorded burial was in 1888 on the land owned by Ira and Susan Woodin who gave the SE two acres of their homestead land for a cemetery. The town continued to bury its dead in the Woodin’s homestead for over a century and in 1988, the two acres formally became a non-profit corporation, run entirely by volunteers, with professionals doing the maintenance and burials.

Contrary to popular belief, the cemetery is still in use with several burials each month.

Further information can be found at www.woodinvillecemetery.org or contact the cemetery sexton at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you’d like to own a plot.